What a difference a day makes

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, here we go...

1.	Was that even the same team? Were they the same players? What the
heck happened? Everything was better. Everything.

2.	Banks... Wow. He was spectacular last night. I'm going to assume his
typical game is going to be somewhere between Wednesday (pretty good, not
great) and Thursday (terrific). If that's the case, the Celts are in pretty
good shape. The guy really has a chance to be a star. Whoever mentioned Tim
Hardaway-that's a good high-end comparison. He may be faster than Hardaway
was. And the best part of the night for Banks was Ainge, while interviewed,
saying that, although Banks needs to take better care of the ball, he didn't
want to harp on that because he wants to maintain the kid's aggressiveness.
That's so much more refreshing (and wise) than Obie's quote last week about
"we want him to have a 3-1 assist-to-turnover ratio..." Geez, Obie's a
downer.

3.	Hunter... Well, like everyone else, I think Hunter has to be on the
roster. What I love about him is he's one of the few potential Celtics who
understands his limitations and strengths and plays within them. And he
quickly has realized that he has a penetrating point guard and if he works
the baseline, he'll get a lot of easy baskets off of Banks dishes. He's
rebounding well. What more can he do? If he doesn't stick here, he'll stick
somewhere else. The sad thing is, I don't think the Celtics are going to
sign him. Ainge was lukewarm when discussing Hunter during the game last
night. 

4.	Kedrick... Yesterday, I said, "Stick a fork in him... " Well, he
made me look like an idiot tonight. He was great. He finally was aggressive
and actually looked like a basketball player instead of a pogo stick. If he
can play like that when the real games start-and do it consistently-then
great. But I'm still not holding my breath. He's been through two
preseasons, two regular seasons, two postseasons and now three summer
leagues-more than 300 games-and this is the first time he really showed
much. Sure, there have been flashes of athleticism, but this was the first
time he looked like an honest to goodness player. It was great to see, but
let's see it again... and again, and again...

5.	McCarty... Just when I think Ainge is being smart and refusing to
commit any kind of long-term money to middling players, he offers McCarty a
three-year deal. Sure, it's not for much, but it's three years-a year longer
than Antoine's contract. Why would you want to commit ANY money beyond the
length of Antoine's deal, unless it was for an impact player? And why for
McCarty, who seems to only play well when motivated by contract
considerations? Needless to say, I don't like this idea one bit. Walter
McCartys are a dime a dozen.

6.	Mike Batiste... Who? Anyone know anything about this guy? I consider
myself an NBA junkie, and I can honestly say I know nothing about Mike
Batiste. But we're talking about using our trade exception and giving up
something in trade to acquire this restricted free agent who put up Walter
McCarty-like numbers last season? I can't wait to hear Papile or Wallace
tell us that Batiste would have been a top-10 pick in this draft.

7.	Sweetney and Lampe... The Knicks got two players. Sweetney will be
solid. He'll never be a star, but he'll be a solid pro for a long time.
Lampe has the potential to be a star, but he's clearly a center. He's
definitely too slow and unathletic to play power forward. But, he has some
nice moves around the basket and a nice touch. He needs to get stronger, but
a few years from now, he could be an upper-echelon center. Let's hope we're
saying the same thing about Kendrick.

Mark